


So It Shall Forever Be

by Michael_Ackart



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Reaper pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-05 23:58:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15182228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michael_Ackart/pseuds/Michael_Ackart
Summary: It observes. It destroys. It cannot feel. It cannot break way





	So It Shall Forever Be

**Author's Note:**

> This idea was in my head for the longest time so I finally wrote it down

So it has been, and so it shall forever be.

It watches silently from the darkness. A shadow, a ghost, a solemn executioner. Another planet destroyed, another million lined up for slaughter. This is the way it has to be.

The only way to save them is to kill them.

The only way they will survive is if they are stopped before they can destroy themselves.

This is the way it has to be.

Every organic is the same. It knows this to be true. It is part of a superior race, it possesses knowledge organics can never begin to understand. If they understood, maybe they wouldn’t fight so hard. But even the strongest of them have never been able to best them. How could they? What can one of these ‘protheans’ or ‘asari’ do to one such as it?

Many, many cycles have passed since its creation. They all start and end the same. Cycle after cycle has passed, empire after empire has fallen. If it had not killed each planet, each organic, these civilizations would have only grown to the point of collapsing in on themselves. They would have destroyed everything in their orbit, and no new cycle of organics could have escaped, could have evolved and formed their own empires stretching from one end of the galaxy to the other. It would have no purpose.

It would never have to travel to another star system.

It would never have to hibernate in dark space, waiting for the right time when it can rise from its slumber and forge a new path of destruction.

It would never have to murder another organic ever again.

Regret is an organic feeling. It possesses no feelings, only a need to complete the task it has been assigned. It is part of a united platform and within that platform there is nothing to allow for dissent. There is nothing that can allow it to break away from its...counterparts? Comrades? ...Friends? It must complete its task at any cost. This is the way it has to be.

It can do nothing but watch as the others harm and manipulate and destroy. Hope is an organic feeling, but it has heard whispers from across the galaxy.

The one called Shepard is the exception. The one called Shepard puts up a fight harder than it has ever seen. The one called Shepard has brought down others of its kind. That gives hope to the lesser races. That doesn’t strike fear within its own mind, doesn’t cause hesitation among its equals.

But maybe Shepard’s actions will be enough to alter the course of this cycle. It is not allowed to dissent, but maybe their task will change. Their destructive actions will no longer be necessary and maybe, just maybe...they will be allowed, like the organics, to just simply exist.

It does not feel hope, it does not feel the despair of a million annihilated races. It has the capacity to remember each individual face that has cried before it, pleaded for their life, tried to shield their loved ones from death. But it does not feel emotion. This is not sorrow beating through every single atom of its being. This is not a desire to be the next one Shepard fells so that it never has to cause or witness another death ever again. This is not hope that some day Shepard follows through on that promise to win the fight against them, to earn the right to determine their own future.

Until that day comes, this is the way it has to be. This unit does not have a soul. If it did, maybe it could find the courage within itself to break away and lend its strength to the organics who want nothing more but to live. If it did, maybe it could believe that Shepard will succeed. But it is not within its programming to believe in anything.

All it knows is that it must complete its task at any cost, like it has cycle after cycle after every single cycle. What shall make this cycle different from all the rest? Even if it could _hope_ for a different outcome, Shepard’s cycle will rise and it will fall. The destiny for every cycle is nothing more than a painful, gruesome end. So it has been, and so it shall forever be.


End file.
